Xavi and Messi Guide Barcelona to Impressive Win

March 19, 2012

FC Barcelona gained a deserved 2-0 victory away at Sevilla on Saturday night. The first half was completely dominated by Guardiola’s men, and they capitalised on their superiority by scoring two well-taken goals – the first a curled free-kick by Xavi, and the second a delicate chip by Lionel Messi. The second half was more even and only some wayward finishing by both teams kept the scoreline so low.

Accused in the past of starting matches quite slowly, Barcelona were up and running within minutes of the kick-off. Adriano saw his shot deflected over away from Palop and just over the bar, before Pedro collected a pin-point pass from Cesc but saw his shot saved at close-range by the Sevilla ‘keeper.

Then, as Adriano raced down the inside-left channel he was sent flying by Spahic just as he was about to enter the area. Xavi stepped up to the ensuing free-kick and curled it beautifully into the top-left corner to open the scoring for Barcelona.

The minutes proceeding the goal saw a succession of chances for Barcelona, as they produced some devastating attacking combinations. Cesc was at the heart of much of the danger – he threaded another clinical pass through for Iniesta, but his teammate shot just wide of the right hand post.

And after 25 minute they got their reward for some of their attacking play when more stylish interplay saw Iniesta set Messi free. The Argentine forward nutmegged Spahic and chipped Palop to extend his staggering scoring run and put Barcelona into a commanding position in the match.

Before time there were chances for both sides – Piqué lost his bearings momentarily, allowing Del Moral a header on goal, which rebounded off the cross-bar and just evaded the Sevilla forward as he attempted to follow up. In response to this effort both Cesc and Pedro saw one-on-one chances saved by Palop, overworked in the Sevilla goal.

Sevilla posed more of a threat in the second half, and had the first big opportunity, about 20 minutes in – Navas raced to the byline and squared across the face of goal, but Del Moral could only poke wide at the back post.

By the 70-minute mark Barcelona had settled and were once again dictating play, as it appeared the home team’s resurgence had been quelled. And indeed, they nearly extended their lead. Messi spotted Iniesta’s run as Barcelona broke on the counter. The midfielder went one on one, resisting pressure from the defender. He drew Palop out, but saw his shot trickle agonisingly wide of the right post.

Alexis, on as a substitute, also had a fantastic opportunity to kill the game as the minutes ticked down to injury time. This time Palop pulled off a fine reaction save to preserve the 2-0 scoreline. Seconds later, Messi saw a free-kick bounce off the roof of the net. In injury time Messi had a goal disallowed, correctly adjudged offside as he raced through.